BPA, Model UN Succeed at National Competitions
Model UN keeps ‘outstanding’ streak alive, while BPA takes home several first-place awards.
The BPA team took part in the 2022 National Leadership Conference in May in Dallas, Tex., and won three first-place awards, along with seven other top-10 finishes. The Model UN team competed at the 2022 National Model UN Conference in April in New York City and received two “outstanding delegation” awards for its representations of Egypt and Sierra Leone, along with numerous individual accolades.
This year, 2022, marks the 25th consecutive year Model UN has received at least one “outstanding” award at the national conference, considered the world’s largest and most prestigious collegiate Model UN competition. In total, Alma has received 49 “outstanding delegation” awards at the national conference, more than any other school in the 96-year history of the conference.
“We called this our ‘Back to New York Campaign,’ because of the COVID-19 pandemic, for the past two years we couldn’t be in New York to compete,” said Derick “Sandy” Hulme, Arthur L. Russell Professor of Political Science and faculty advisor to MUN. “In addition to competing in-person and the benefits that come from that experience, we also had time to explore the city, and the students had a lot of fun with their discoveries.
“I’m very proud of this group of students,” Hulme continued. “Their performance reflects a collective effort that overcame the challenges of the past two years in a way that students in the previous 30 years never had to deal with. They set the bar for the world’s competitors to try and meet.”
A full list of Model UN winners is below.
The BPA team followed up on its success in the regional competition, in which they won three first-place nods, with a strong showing at nationals.
The team of Brianna Sharpsteen of Prudenville; Sondes Gasmi of Teboulbou, Tunisia; and Gracie Allen of Alma won first place in the Presentation Management category. Gasmi and Braxton Lamey of Ithaca, won first-place awards for individual performances; in the categories of Human Resource Management and Python Programming, respectively.
Gasmi won a third-place nod in Entrepreneurship and Small Business, a fifth-place award in Medical Terminology Concepts and a 10th-place win in Project Management Concepts. Lamey won a fifth-place nod for Java Programming, a sixth-place award for Information Technology Concepts, a seventh-place award for SQL Database Fundamentals, and an eighth-place award for Computer Programming Concepts.
Allen won a third-place nod in Interview Skills, and Sharpsteen won a fifth-place award in Business Law and Ethics.
“I knew we would do well, but we did better than what I was expecting,” said Lamey, a sophomore from Ithaca. “Our team is dedicated to doing well and willing to put in the work. Hopefully we’re able to come back, add some more students and do it again.”
OUTSTANDING DELEGATIONS
Egypt delegation:
- Liudmila Budaragina
- Lauren Dempz
- Abigail Haag
- Mariem Hamdi
- Lucas Hartwell
- Alex Herin
- Jacob Keeley
- Luke Losie
- Sameeka Maroli
- Prarthita Nath
- Samuel Nelson
- Chloe Pace
- Emily Patzkowsky
- Sophia Payne
- Maria Ruedisueli
- Madison Ryan
- Aditya Shankar
- Aishwarya Singh
- Rakkshet Singhaal
- Maria Vostrizansky
- Elizabeth Vredevelt
Sierra Leone delegation:
- Marwa Assiad
- Syrine Ben Driss
- Maris Fett
- Regina Galeeva
- Alyssa Gibson
- Madison Hall
- Angela Mish
- Aryaan Misra
- Claire Neeb
- Taylor Neeb
- Robert Preni
- Eleanor Smith
- Abbey Swanson
- Isabel Umanzor
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL RECOGNITION
- Maris Fett
- Regina Galeeva
- Alyssa Gibson
- Lucas Hartwell
- Jacob Keeley
- Luke Losie
- Angela Mish
- Prarthita Nath
- Claire Neeb
- Taylor Neeb
- Aishwara Singh
- Eleanor Smith
- Abbey Swanson
OUTSTANDING WRITTEN SUBMISSION
- Marwa Assiad
- Syrine Ben Driss
- Lauren Dempz
- Regina Galeeva
- Abigail Haag
- Mariem Hamdi
- Lucas Hartwell
- Alex Herin
- Prarthita Nath
- Jacob Keeley
- Luke Losie
- Angela Mish
- Aryaan Misra
- Prarthita Nath
- Samuel Nelson
- Emily Patzkowsky
- Maria Ruedisueli
- Madison Ryan
- Aishwarya Singh
- Rakkshet Singhaal
- Eleanor Smith
- Abbey Swanson
- Isabel Umanzor